


She's My Cherry Cola

by SecretlyADog



Series: The Call [3]
Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Suicide Attempt, it's because i feel like it, nines HATES cyberlife, oh also suicidal thoughts but the first tag should imply that, oh but cute cat tho :), some androids can eat don't ask why, vague hints of an eating disorder if you squint, why not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:20:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23510713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecretlyADog/pseuds/SecretlyADog
Summary: Cyberlife gets tired of Caleb being useless and compromises with him.
Relationships: Connor/Upgraded Connor | RK900
Series: The Call [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1691638
Comments: 2
Kudos: 13





	She's My Cherry Cola

All he could taste was thirium. 

He was tired of it; once upon a time he'd eaten daily. Caleb loved the taste of food… or he did. Had. At one point. Until something had happened and…

Well, that didn't matter. Or at least Caleb couldn't let it matter.

Or he could. He could and he could let himself throw up more thirium until he was dizzy and couldn't see straight and his system betrayed him by sending out a distress signal so Cyberlife could rush in and save him from the brink of death while he insisted that he was fine and he just needed to sleep for a little while and everything would be okay-

And Cyberlife had forced more thirium into him and told him they couldn't let him carry on like this, that either he had to lose his emotions or they'd have to come to a compromise. Caleb refused to forget how he felt and so Cyberlife came to him with an idea they thought he  _ would _ go for.

“We'd like to offer a solution to your… emotional problem. Something that we can both agree on.”

“I don't-” Caleb started, but they'd evidently planned on him interrupting them to make a snarky comment.

“We promise you'll have no objections, hear us out,” the employee said, voice just a little snappy.

Caleb said nothing, he merely stared at her for a moment before he nodded, eyes gliding to the hands in his seated lap.

“We're prepared to buy you an emotional support animal.”

Caleb's eyes snapped up to meet the gaze of the employee who'd spoken and he tried not to let the surprise show too starkly on his face.

“Is that something that you would be interested in?”

Caleb and Connor had once talked about…

“Y-yes,” Nines breathed, trying to not let the emotions flood his system and manifest themselves in his eyes.

“Good. We have a list that we've compiled of possible candidates. We expect you to make a decision promptly so we can immediately send for it.” As she spoke, she slid a tablet toward Nines with an assortment of mostly furred animals in list form with some inconsequential information; breed, description, some personality traits, et cetera.

Caleb noticed that the list seemed to be in order of cheapest to most expensive, and the second he realized that he immediately tapped to the last page. The Cyberlife employees in front of him shifted almost nervously upon seeing this.

His eyes drifted almost immediately to a medium-sized (according to her information) colorpoint Scottish fold. She was  _ beautiful _ and she had a sweet face and, yes, folded ears. At just under a year old, she was almost fully grown and  _ very _ fluffy.

… Connor had once told Nines that he reminded him of a cat, something about the way he stretched and acted-

And maybe a cat would understand him better than anyone if that was true.

“I want her,” Caleb said, turning the tablet around and pointing to the picture next to her details, the one where she sat pretty looking at the camera as if curious as to what it was.

One of the employees spluttered out a half-hearted excuse as to why they couldn’t while the main one, the one who did all the talking, went pale. 

Oh, and the $3000 price tag hadn’t escaped Caleb’s notice either.

“This… must be a mistake, I don’t think-”

“They said they just took it right off the website,” the other employee hissed to the first as they both stared down at the cat.

“I would like that one,” Caleb repeated more firmly. The employees looked at him and then at each other.

“Fine,” the first one said, extending her hand out to shake Caleb’s. He took it, trying not to let the smirk on his face grow beyond a twitch of his lips.

The next thing Caleb knew, there was a cat in his apartment.

Her name was Evelyn and she seemed to be very curious. It was a new environment for her and she had the right to explore it. Caleb watched as she jumped up on the dresser and then he went to his bed and laid down, closing his eyes so he didn’t have to stare at the ceiling again. He played songs that were supposed to make him feel happy loudly through the headphones he’d bought so that he wouldn’t be alone in a quiet room with nothing but his thoughts. Caleb remained motionless, listening to the uplifting songs that he’d carefully combed the lyrics of beforehand so that nothing would set him off-

Caleb jumped as a weight pressed down next to him, too light for it to be a person (for which he was grateful) and Evelyn was there by his side, staring at him with wide blue eyes for a moment before she stepped delicately over him and curled up by his side, the side where Connor should’ve been. Nines found that that fact didn’t bother him nearly as much as it should’ve.

Caleb stroked Evelyn’s soft fur, feeling rather than hearing her purring. He resented his shaking hands as he paused his music and gingerly took his headphones off so he could hear her better. Her purring was loud; it was almost as if she meant to comfort him with it, but Caleb knew it had everything to do with the fact that he kept drawing his hand down her spine.

Caleb woke up the next morning to a cat that was demanding his attention. Her insistence on him feeding her overpowered the feeling that something was wrong, that someone was missing. Caleb had fed her and she’d rewarded him by sitting in his lap while he used the time that was normally spent eating to sit and pet her.

When he came home from work stressed out and struggling to repress certain memories, Evelyn greeted him at the door. The apartment seemed much less empty when someone was waiting for him, and when he said so to Cyberlife after they asked him how it was going with his cat, they seemed pleased by the progress.

There had been a particularly bad day at the DPD, a scene that looked too familiar and sent Caleb into hysterics. That night, for the first time since he’d gotten Evelyn, he had a nightmare and was awoken at two in the morning to quickly stumble over the toilet so he could throw up the cleaning solution that had thankfully been replenished. Otherwise it would’ve been straight thirium, and that would’ve been extremely detrimental to Caleb’s already faltering health.

Distantly, Caleb became aware of a tiny, cold, wet nose pressing against his temple as he panted, hoping that this bout would stop soon. As he focused on it, he realized he could hear a loud purring as well. Evelyn had jumped up onto the tank of the toilet to comfort him, presumably, and perhaps coax him back to bed as well. The rumble deep in her throat was oddly comforting, and Caleb picked her up to hug her to his chest briefly before he set her down on the floor next to him.

“Soon,” he said, meeting her concerned-looking gaze. “I promise. ...Go back to bed, Evie.” The last sentence was said quietly, soft as he tested the new nickname on his tongue. He decided he liked it for her, and there were no protests from the long cat. Caleb shifted in an attempt to stand but he felt so... weak; oddly fragile. 

Evelyn turned and made her way out of the bathroom, and very faintly he made out the sound of her paws shifting the blankets as she settled back down. Caleb only managed to move away from the toilet and onto the too comfortable bath mat mere inches away from it. A few moments had passed between his last movement and the next one, and even less progress was made this time. He’d slept in the bathroom before. It was just going to be one of those nights. He didn’t trust his own stomach, less so now that the rest of his body was failing to keep up with him as well.

Only a few moments passed between Caleb accepting his fate and the sound of paws hitting the floor. Evelyn stepped into the bathroom again, meowing at Caleb as she stared at him as if urging him to stand. Caleb shuddered with the weight of his feelings, shot Evelyn an apologetic look.

“‘M sorry, Evie… I… I can’t…”

Evelyn stared at him for a few more seconds before coming over, shoving herself under his hand as if trying to pull him up herself. She meowed a few more times, ignoring the way Caleb ran his hand down her spine the way every cat seemed to like.

“I can’t. I’m so tired…” Caleb shut his mouth and swallowed hard as his last three words turned shaky, sounding suspiciously like he was about to start crying. He wanted to tell Evelyn why, wanted to explain that he didn’t have the motivation to go on without him, that Caleb had needed Connor in a way that he’d never needed anyone and now that he was gone, it was hard for Caleb to keep on going. For what? It all felt like it was for nothing. 

And this was why Cyberlife was so worried for him. This was why that night, when he had thrown up nearly everything his system had to offer and he’d done nothing to stop it, when Cyberlife had to come save him from his own body, the words “suicide attempt” had been thrown around. Was that what Caleb had been trying to do? He didn’t think so… or at least hadn’t at the time; hindsight was 20/20. He’d just felt so sleepy afterward, he’d enjoyed the feeling of the warmth leaving his body and his feelings with it, he’d enjoyed the way everything went to the backburner as his systems struggled to cope with the blood loss and he’d vaguely wondered if this was how Connor felt, if his proclamations of being exhausted had felt the same way-

Nines snapped back into reality as Evelyn stepped on his chest, her paws producing an uncomfortable pressure where she stood, and then she lowered herself down and curled up on him, producing that same loud purring that seemed to be specifically made to calm him. It seemed that wherever Caleb slept, Evelyn would sleep there too. She wouldn’t leave him alone to suffer.

A pitiful noise left Caleb’s throat, the beginnings of a sob, and although the feelings that had prompted it were less than happy, the feelings driving it now were the opposite. This cat loved him, understood that he was in pain and refused to leave him. She was loyal to him and she did nothing but help him, as if she knew exactly what he needed before he even knew.

Caleb’s soft crying didn’t seem to bother Evelyn and he tried to pull her closer. They could feel each other’s heartbeat from their position and it was comforting. “Thank you,” Caleb whined pathetically as the tears tracked down his cheeks. He repeated those two words over and over as Evelyn purred, and he let the sound lull him to a calm state and then finally sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> fun fact evelyn is literally just an OC I own  
> I love my android son


End file.
